TLC: Tables, Ladders
TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (advertised as TLC: Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Stairs) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE. It took place on December 14, 2014 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. It was the sixth annual TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs event, and the only event in the series, to date, to have the "stairs" annotation added to the title. Eight matches were scheduled on the event's card and one match took place on the Kickoff pre-show. The main event saw Bray Wyatt defeat Dean Ambrose in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. The pay-per-view also saw the return of Roman Reigns. It received 39,000 PPV buys (not including WWE Network viewers), which is the lowest since the introduction of the WWE Network earlier in the year, dramatically down from the previous year's 181,000 buys. Production Background TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs is an annual gimmick pay-per-view, generally produced every December by WWE since 2009. The concept of the show is based on the primary matches of the card each containing a stipulation using tables, ladders, and chairs as legal weapons, with the main event generally being a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. 2014 was the sixth event under the TLC chronology, and was advertised as "TLC: Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Stairs" due to the event featuring a Steel Stairs match. Storylines The card consisted of nine matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers. Storylines that played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. At Survivor Series, Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose by disqualification when Ambrose hit Wyatt with a chair. After the match, Ambrose drove Wyatt through a table, threw chairs on him and stood on top of a ladder. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that Ambrose would face Wyatt in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match at TLC. At Survivor Series, Nikki Bella defeated AJ Lee for the WWE Divas Championship. On the December 8 edition of Raw, it was announced that AJ would invoke her rematch clause to face Nikki for the title at TLC. On the November 24 edition of Raw, Daniel Bryan returned as a special guest manager and put former Director of Operations Kane in charge of food concessions. Ryback attacked Kane after Kane threw a hot dog at Ryback. On the November 28 edition of Smackdown, Kane attacked Ryback during his match with Seth Rollins and attacked Ryback with a chair after the match. Later in the night, Bryan (who was also the guest manager that night) announced that Ryback would face Kane in a Chairs match at TLC. On the December 1 edition of Raw, Seth Rollins attempted to persuade John Cena to bring The Authority back into power, but they were interrupted by the Anonymous Raw General Manager, who announced that Cena and Rollins would face off in a Tables match at TLC and added that if Cena loses, he will no longer be the #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. On the December 1 edition of Raw, The Usos won a Tag Team Turmoil match to face WWE Tag Team Champions The Miz and Damien Mizdow for the titles at TLC. At Survivor Series, Big Show turned on Team Cena by knocking out John Cena during their match, prompting Seth Rollins to pin and eliminate Cena. On the November 24 edition of Raw, Team Cena member Erick Rowan confronted Big Show and attacked him. On the December 1 edition of Raw, Rowan defeated Big Show by disqualification after Big Show attacked Rowan with steel steps, but later in the show, Rowan would knock out Big Show with steel steps with the help of Cena, Dolph Ziggler, and Ryback. On the December 2 episode of Main Event, it was announced that Rowan will face Big Show in a Steel Stairs match at TLC. Additionally, the PPV was renamed "TLC: Tables, Ladders, Chairs...and Stairs" in recognition of the stairs match. On the November 17 edition of Raw, Luke Harper defeated Dolph Ziggler to win the Intercontinental Championship with the help of Seth Rollins, Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury. After Survivor Series, Harper would be forced to defend the title against Ziggler on the November 28th and December 5 editions of Smackdown, but Harper would lose via countout and disqualification respectively to retain the title. After Harper retained the title for the second time against Ziggler, Harper attempted to attack Ziggler with a ladder, but Ziggler countered and attacked Harper, prompting Santino Marella to announce a ladder match between the two for the title at TLC. On the November 28 edition of SmackDown, The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) made their debut. On the December 1 edition of Raw, Big E and Kingston eliminated Gold and Stardust from the Tag Team Turmoil match, but Gold and Stardust later distracted The New Day and caused them to be eliminated from the bout. On the December 8 edition of Raw, it was announced that Big E and Kingston would face Gold and Stardust on the TLC Kickoff Show. On the December 1 edition of Raw, Jack Swagger found his mentor, Zeb Colter, beaten up in a corridor. United States Champion Rusev admitted to have attacked Colter, which resulted in Swagger attacking Rusev. On the December 8 edition of Raw, it was announced that Rusev would defend the championship against Swagger at TLC. Aftermath The following night on Raw, guest general manager Chris Jericho made a rematch between John Cena and Seth Rollins in a Steel Cage Match. Near the end of the match, Brock Lesnar returned and attacked Cena, resulting in Rollins to win the match by walking out of the cage. On SmackDown, Rollins revealed that he orchestrated the attack. The next edition of Raw, another rematch of the two took place, with Cena winning. On the December 29 episode of Raw, hosted by Edge and Christian, Rollins threatened Edge's neck (which was at a high risk of fracture that could lead to potential paralysis) unless Cena gave in and brought The Authority back, which Cena did in order to protect Edge. Big Show and Rollins attacked Cena, after which The Authority came out to celebrate. Also on December 29, Daniel Bryan returned to talk about his future in WWE. Although he teased the idea that his career may be over, he instead announced he was medically cleared to compete again, and declared he would participate in the Royal Rumble. On the January 5 episode of Raw, The Authority booked a 2-out-of-3 falls match for the Intercontinental Championship, which saw Ziggler lose the championship to Bad News Barrett. Also, Erick Rowan lost his match against Luke Harper and Ryback was defeated by Rollins and Kane in a Handicap Match. By the end of the episode, Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan were all fired due to their involvement in Team Cena at Survivor Series. On the January 19th edition of Raw, John Cena, with the help of Sting, defeated Big Show, Kane and Seth Rollins to get the jobs of Ziggler, Ryback, and Rowan back. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs Category:TLC PPV Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2014 Pay-Per-View Events